For 2015, I will be doing a series of articles in celebration of the end of the Civil War. Alexandria African Americans contributed a lot to the growth and history of Alexandria, VA. The forgotten historical contributions of many African Americans in Alexandria have been unknown for far too long. Great accomplishments were made in the 19th Century; but by 1900 many accomplishments were pushed back by Jim Crow laws and segregation. For one whole year, my blog will take you back in time to Alexandria in the 19th Century (1800 – 1899). These articles will focus on the contributions that African Americans made in Alexandria including business, politics, churches, occupations, education, and the continuing fight for their civil rights in the 19th Century. I will start posting these articles twice a month starting on January 11, 2015. If you are not following my Blog, please go to my Blog and sign up to receive notices of upcoming blogs at http://www.theotheralexandria.com. Thanks!

2 Responses to Celebrating 150 years end of the Civil War

Dear theotheralexandria, dear Char,
I was looking on the web for narratives of Virginia (esp. Halifax and neighbouring counties). After half-retiring I have got interested in wider and as well specific African-American history (as well as Independance and now I am hooked-stuck with the Civil War, rather should be called American Revolution. I am supplied with the larger ‘southernal’ narratives; however, now I am looking for narratives of and by Virginians and if possible Halifaxans.
As I am reading “After Appomattox”, by Gregory P. Downs, I do wonder if you would politically state the end of Civil War in 1865 ( as you wrote ‘…series of articles in celebration of the end of the Civil War’ – :
I heard Gregory P. Downs on YouTube with David W. Blight and I’ve got his book e- and paper version.
In the Introduciton he says:
“On April 8, 1856, after almost four years of fighting and nearly thre-quarters of a million deaths, Robert E.Lee wrote to Ulysses S. Grant to ask for ‘peace.’ As the U.S. army closed in on Conferderat forces near Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Lee sought a way to end not just th fighting but the entire conflict. With this letter from the Confederate general to the U.S. commander, the Civil War at last seemed near its close. If Grant had accepted Lee’s proposal the two generals might have negotiated not just an army surrender but a nation’s peace, not just an end to fighting but and end to war. But Grant’s aides dismissed Lee’s offer out of hand. The rebel general ‘wsants to entrap us into making a treaty of Peace’, one of Grant’s aides said, but ‘that is the prerogative of the President, or the Senate.’……
…The distinction between Lee’s ‘peace’ and Grant’s surrender’ would make a great deal of difference over the next five years. Denying peace was among the most important decisions mad during the Civil War….”

Thanks Harald! How are you? I have not published any of my papers on the Civil War. I am currently writing my second book, “Unknown Descendants of Alexandria, Virginia’s Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery.” I waiting to here from my publisher whether I have a contract or not.